iAssess: Course assessment made easy

Objectives: Introduce a methodology that can alleviate and automate course assessment required by accreditation bodies using handy tools such as spreadsheets. Methods/Statistical Analysis: To show the possibility of automating course assessment, we built a system, called iAssess, that consisted of a set of spreadsheets that provide templates for instructors to record student and course related data such as grades and course outcomes. Both student grades and course outcomes are programmatically linked such that whenever grades get updated, course outcomes get re-assessed seamlessly. Findings: To get a preliminary evaluation for the system, we tried it with 5 faculty members who dealt with almost 22 sections (approximately 400 students). The instructors were briefed about iAssess through informal sessions that lasted for 15 minutes each. Feedback was collected regularly every two months through informal interviews. Furthermore, after the adoption for two semesters, we conducted structured interviews in order to assess the attitude of instructors towards iAssess. Preliminary results showed that our system is easy to use, effective, and customizable. Application/Improvements: We envisage that our methodology and tool can be applied to any course assessment that is usually requested by accreditation bodies such as ABET.